First Polarimetric PSI Ground Deformation Monitoring Results With RCM Quad-Pol Data

Launched in June 2019, the Radarsat constellation mission (RCM) has the ability to acquire quad-pol PolSAR data globally. By applying polarimetric optimization on interferograms with PolSAR images, polarimetric persistent interferometry (PolPSI) techniques can achieve ground deformation results better than PSI. However, to the best knowledge of the authors, there are very few published studies about RCM PSI applications, and the PolPSI ones have never been reported. This letter reports for the first time the PolPSI results with the quad-pol RCM data over an urban area. The quality of interferometric phases can be significantly improved with the polarimetric optimizations, resulting in better ground deformation monitoring results with PolPSI than with PSI. Very similar ground deformation has been retrieved with Sentinel-1 data over the same area, where more details are provided with the RCM data, validating the correctness of the RCM (Po)PSI results. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of this new SAR satellite constellation on PSI and PolPSI applications.